Spawn of the Wicked

Hostile Greetings

🐙

hostile

/ˈhɒstʌɪl/

adjective

showing or feeling opposition or dislike; unfriendly.

Harry, Gil and I were sat in the land vehicle, waiting for the Prince guy to come back with other VKs. The first was around ten years old, with bright paint splattered on her dark blue dress, and lots of bright colours dyed into her naturally red hair. She sat a few seats behind us, glancing nervously at Harry.

We waited... and we waited... and we waited. Gil and Harry had set up a game of Rummy, and I was joining in. Harry and I won a few times when the vehicle doors opened again.

The VKs who entered were four I really didn't want to see. The purple-haired, pointy-eared backstabbing fairy. The hothead thief. The dainty Princess Blueberry. The cowardly mutt, who was holding a toddler close to him. We were once a gang of seven, but then they betrayed us. I wouldn't let that happen again.

🐶

Upon seeing the three pirates, my brother buried himself into my neck, scared at the sight of them. I didn't blame him either; they were all dressed in dark clothes, appearing to be stained with blood. It wasn't like our clothes weren't, but he had gotten used to us. Besides, Hook's hook was definitely unnerving.

A few seats behind the three sat a ten year old red-haired girl, who excitedly rushed to Evie the second she saw her. It was Dizzy Tremaine, Drusilla's daughter. She was as close to Evie as I was to my brother, so much so that they started to excitedly gossip about Auradon. I wasn't as close to her as Evie was, so I sat next to Jay instead, the four year old on my lap. Mal was watching Evie talk excitedly, a small smile spreading on the fairy's face.

The five of us were the last VKs to board the vehicle, Benjamin and two other AKs following us on. One of them had short black hair and a green and blue dress, and the other was wearing a purple t-shirt with blue jeans. The AK with the dress was as smiley as Benjamin, but the other seemed more reserved, especially towards Jay.

"I'm bored, Cawos," my brother grumbled several minutes later.
I hummed in thought.
"How about a game? A guessing game?" I suggested to him.
"Wha's the game?"
"I'm thinking of something that's the colour blue, and you have to guess what it is."

He looked around the vehicle, scrunching his nose up in concentration.
"The pwince?" He guessed. I had forgotten that the Prince was even there; he was sat at the front with the other AKs, arguing quietly with the boy in blue and purple.
"I'm sorry, but it isn't," I answered.

The other VKs glanced at me, the Sea Three smirking, and I realised my imbecilic mistake.

I had apologised.

The toddler guessed again, pulling me out of my panic. "The skwy?"
"The sky's grey, pup," I explained, sighing.
"But wook!" he exclaimed, pointing out of a window. At his yells, everyone looked out of the window, and gasped. We were close to the edge of the barrier, what used to be a bridge between us and Auradon cutting the road off. On our side of the invisible barrier, the sky was its usual smokey grey. On the other side, it was a brilliant duck-egg blue!

(I didn't know the colour of duck eggs at the time, nor was I sure what a duck even looked like, but that's how I would describe the colour now.)

Suddenly, I felt a wave of energy pass over me, like electricity shooting through a cable. My body stung all over, specifically my head and the tail-end of my spine. Attempting to suppress it, or at least not show it, I scanned the room.

Purple reptile-scaled horns emerged through Mal's hair, which was soaked in green fairy blood in the areas. Evie and Shrimpy had passed out, a glowing energetic field surrounding each of them. Jay was rubbing his wrists in pain, which were cuffed by gold manipulators of genies, and a humble iron lamp laid in his lap. The four year old shrieked and wriggled in pain, burying himself into me. Cat ears were protruding from his head, and a tail from his lower back, both pitch black.

💀

"WHA' IN THE BLOODY DEPTHS OF THE OCEANS WERE THA'?!" I yelled, furious. Something had ran through me worse than Smee's attempted singing, or dad's rum bottles clattering on the wooden floorboards. That same something had knocked my captain out, covering her in glowing light. I wouldn't admit it to anyone but Gil or Uma, but it completely terrified me.

The three AKs were utterly shocked at the effect. Princey had flinched, but had hidden it well from the others. I glared at him, something felt off about him...

As soon as we were on dry land, Uma had started to wake up, the lizard had stopped bleeding and the younger De Vil kid had stopped screaming in pain. The jolt had subsided in me. Looking out of the window, many people outside had stopped what they were doing and stared at us. They didn't seem happy to see us, some just gawked while others outright glared.